


A Mask Within the Fog

by SnowInkling



Category: Persona 4, Persona 5
Genre: Gen, THERE'S ALSO A FOX, a whole lotta angst, cabbage man, the twins make a cameo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-17 03:28:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13650492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowInkling/pseuds/SnowInkling
Summary: Souji Seta never gave up on Tohru Adachi.Years later, during the Phantom Thieves reign, Akira has a strange customer at Leblanc.He wonders what his story is.





	1. Nostalgic Coffee

In a small café nestled in a backstreet in Yongen-Jaya, Souji Seta sat at the bar, staring at his half-empty cup of coffee, lost in thought. A cellphone lay a safe distance away from the cup, which the man occasionally glanced at. The first sip he took from his coffee brought with it a wave of nostalgia, when he was living at his uncle’s home in the small town of Inaba. A place Souji hadn’t been back to since he left 4 years ago. Come to think of it, he hadn’t had coffee since then, too. What had compelled him to get a cup from this café? He would never know…

“Uh, sir?” A voice belonging to the barista snapped Souji out of his thought-filled daze. “Excuse me, but are you going to finish your coffee? You’ve been staring at it for a good ten minutes or so.”

“O-oh…” Souji looked up at the barista, who was looking at him quizzically. The barista’s dark grey eyes, curly black hair, and glasses, added with the dull grey shirt and apron he was wearing made him look at home in this café, but otherwise just another face in the crowd in this bustling city. “uh… yes, I am.”

“The coffee is probably cold by now, so I can give you a refill if you want?” The barista commented. He added, “On the house.”

There was a moment of silence before Souji responded. “Sure, thanks.” The barista nodded at him before taking his cup of cold coffee away. Souji turned his head to a painting of a woman holding a baby in her arms, resting his head in the palm of his hand as he lost himself in thoughts once again. The barista looked too young to be the owner, he thought, so it was more than likely that he was a part-timer. Was he in college? No, he looked to still be in high school, Souji guessed. The barista looked around the age Souji had been when he…

“You like the painting?” The barista spoke up, once again snapping Souji out of his thoughts.

“It seems to fit in well with the café’s atmosphere.” Souji commented as he took a closer look at it.

“It really does.” The barista said as he got the cup of coffee ready.

Once poured, he placed the cup in front of Souji. Before he could even grab hold of the cup, Souji’s cellphone started to buzz as an incoming call came in. A name showed on the illuminated screen, filling Souji with dread, fear, and regret. He knew a phone call from _him_ was going to come up soon, but _this soon?_ All he could do was stare and read the caller’s name: Tohru Adachi


	2. An Unexptected Request

Akira Kurusu had been manning Leblanc for about two hours now, while Sojiro went out to get more coffee beans. The café had run low on several types of beans, even running out of Blue Mountain earlier today. The silver-haired man sitting at the bar in front of him had been here for about an hour, sipping at the cup of coffee the entire time. _When was Sojiro going to be back?_ Akira wondered. _It didn’t usually take this long to get coffee beans, right?_ He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible and spend time with one of his confidants.

Instead, he tried to pass the time by talking to the only customer currently in the shop. If one could really call asking if they were going to finish their (probably cold) coffee talking to them. Akira had also tried talking about the Sayuri while he made the customer a new cup of coffee, but judging from the way he answered, he didn’t want to make small talk. In that moment, Akira saw a version of himself between getting arrested and awakening to his persona.

Right after Akira placed the cup of coffee in front oh the customer, the cellphone that belonged to him started to ring. He looked at the name of the caller, not knowing or caring if the customer cared. It was on the table staring up at them, after all. The name of the caller, however, was a name that Akira recognized; Tohru Adachi. He had been one of the detectives who had been working on the assault case six months ago, if his memory was correct. So, does that mean that this customer is also a detective? It would be the most logical answer, if he knew that detective.

“…Are you going to answer that?” Akira commented as the cellphone kept ringing.

The man gave him a started look before taking the cellphone in his hand and answered the phone. He stood up from his seat and moved towards the door, but not exiting Leblanc, at least. The customer was talking in a hushed tone; Akira could only pick up bits and pieces of the conversation, none of which made any sense to him. Once the customer was finished talking to the person on the other end of the phone, he let out a long, heavy sigh.

“I’m sorry, but something’s come up.” The customer spoke in a somber tone. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his wallet, and handed Akira the payment for the coffee. “Keep the change.” With that, the customer quickly walked out the door.

“What a weird customer…” Akira thought aloud in the empty café.

 

* * *

 

Akira woke up to the sounds of a girl yelling at him. _Why am I always being called to the velvet room?_ He wanted to complain aloud, but knowing the one yelling at him, he really didn’t want to piss her off. Instead, he got up from the cell’s bed and walked to cell’s door, gripping on the iron bars. The first thing that he noticed was that Igor was nowhere to be seen

“Where the hell is that long-nosed bastard?” Akira wondered aloud.

The sound of a baton hitting iron reverberated throughout the room, making Akira flinch away from the cell door “You will address our master by his name, inmate!” a girl with buns on each side of her head – Caroline – harshly yelled at him as he grabbed hold of the bars once again.

“Master is away right now.” A different girl wearing her hair in a braid – Justine – spoke in a softer manner than Caroline. “We have been wanting to speak to you privately for a while now, but we were unable to. Until now, that is.”

“You better be grateful, inmate!” Caroline curtly added.

“Okay, so what is it?” Akira said bluntly.

“There is a persona that wishes to speak with you.” Justine replied. “One that _should_ be unobtainable to you.”

“Unobtainable?” Akira asked. “What--”

Caroline interrupted Akira, calling out to whichever persona wanted to speak to him “Hey! Whatever you have to say, make it quick!”

From the shadows, a persona Akira had never seen stepped forth. Akira didn’t have words to describe this persona, other than it wielded a sword with a long handle and _blades on the sole of its feet._

“I am the persona of someone who had shared a fate similar to yours.” The persona said. “Five years ago, he and his friends – other persona users – were trying to uncover the truth around the murders in a small town called Inaba.” Akira’s face paled as his face expressed the sudden horror he was feeling inside. The persona continued, “However, his eyes became clouded in the middle of their investigation, and hid crucial information that would have revealed the true killer, wanting to believe in that man. For four years, that man has been in despair, and it grows worse with each passing day.”

With the last sentence, the persona was unable to hide the pain in it’s voice; something Akira hadn’t noticed until now. He swallowed hard before speaking up, “Wait, you said he’s a persona user, right? From the information you’ve given me, you’re making it sound like he has a shadow born from the despair in his heart.”

The persona took a calm breath, steadying himself from the pain he was in. “Precisely.”

“But, persona users can’t have shadows.”

“Before his friends obtained their personas,” The persona started to explain. “They had to face their shadow; their true self. However, the person I am tied to never did. Right now, he is unknowingly turning me into his shadow.”

“So, you want me to change his heart, so you can continue to be his persona?” Akira gave the persona a scrutinizing look.

“I will be his persona no longer.” The persona retorted. “However, I want you to help him from himself, and from the man that has held him captive for these past four years.” With that, the persona started to fade away.

“Wait!” Akira yelled at the now translucent persona “Whose heart is it that you want me to steal? Why did you ask me to do this? What-” Before he could answer the final question, the persona vanished.

“Listen up, inmate!” Caroline raised her voice. “We’ve already made a request in that persona’s stead on that website-thing, so hurry up and do it!”

“Our master will be returning soon.” Justine commented. “It is time to go back to your wold.”

“Hey, wait!” Akira yelled as his eyes became heavy from the sudden exhaustion. “I still have… more questions…”


	3. A Wildcard's Regrets

Akira woke up tangled in his bed sheets, which was nothing new to him at this point. Every time he was pulled to that room, he always found himself wrestling the sheets off him. Once free, he stood up, stretched, and checked his phone. Only one person had messaged him, and it was from Mishima. His friend had sent him a string of texts about a post he saw on the phansite that he thought was weird enough for the phantom thieves to take on. The messages even included a screenshot of the post.

“Inma – Phantom thieves!” Akira read the post aloud. From how the post started, it was in Caroline’s writing. “There’s a person who’s been wallowing in his despair, and it’s getting out of control.” This time, the words on the screen sounded like it was Justine who had typed the sentence out. “The person’s name is Souji Seta. What are you waiting for?! Steal his heart already!” The final two sentences were no doubt written by Caroline. Akira wondered when she would just drop the tsundere act and treat him as her equal.

“A post from the phansite?” A boyish voiced called out from behind him. Akira turned around and stared down at morgana, who was staring back up at him.

“Yeah.” Akira yawned, letting the remnants of sleep leave his body. “Though, this one seems urgent.”

“From the way you read it, it doesn’t seem all that urgent.” Morgana commented. Akira thought otherwise.

“I’m going to call a thieves meeting after school.” Akira told Morgana as he started messaging his friends. He remembered the conversation between him and the unnamed persona from the night before, and how it had mentioned Inaba. _What is this Seta’s connection with that place?_ Akira wondered. _Why am I being asked to do this?_

When school passed, Akira notified his friends, who had arrived at Leblanc within an hour. With everyone situated around a table he set up, Akira explained why they were called in for a meeting, and, seeing as how everyone was alright with taking on this request, he led the others to Mementos.

The phantom thieves scoured each floor in Mementos until they found the floor Shadow Souji was on. Now that the shadow was in view, everyone piled out of the Mona-Bus and started walking towards it. However, Akira took a few steps towards it before stopping, staring intently at the shadow in front of him. He recognized the head of silver hair, styled similar to a bowl cut, and was wearing a white dress shirt and black dress pants. The shadow was also holding a two-handed katana, from what Akira could tell. Akira stifled a laugh of disbelief at how coincidental this encounter was. _So, why is he tied to Inaba and the fog that surrounds the town?_ He started to wonder

“Joker?” A small voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He turned to face Haru, who looked worried about him. “Are you alright?”

“Sorry to worry you, Noir.” Akira reassured her, calling her by her codename. “I’m alright.”

“He’s probably just overthinking things.” Ryuji stated almost matter-of-factly. It was no surprise; he and Ryuji had been friends since Akira moved to Tokyo.

“Though, that does raise the question,” Makoto pondered. “Do you know him, Joker?”

“Other than him being a customer at Leblanc yesterday, nope.” Joker replied.

“His bowl cut is dumb.” Futaba retorted.

Ann sighed, “Great, now I have an urge to give him a better hairstyle. It’s really… awful.”

“I see no problem with his hairstyle,” Yusuke chimed in, a hint of annoyance in his voice. “However, this man’s stance is poor.”

“That’s the one thing you find weird with him?” Ann huffed in annoyance.

“That is not how you hold a katana.” Yusuke calmly interjected.

“Can we just focus on the task at hand, _please?_ ” Makoto interjected in stern voice.

At this point, Akira started to walk towards the shadow once again. With each step closer Akira took towards Shadow Souji, a feeling of uneasiness grew in his stomach. Once he was close enough, Akira stopped, listening to the shadow repeat one word over and over.

“Why… why… why…?” Shadow Souji breathed, his head downcast, and seemingly unaware of who had approached him.

“Uh, hello?” Akira called out. Shadow Souji didn’t respond. Akira tried to again to gain the shadow’s attention, but to no avail. Akira let out a frustrated sigh, took a step closer to the shadow, and said, “So? Why? I won’t know unless you say something other than ‘why’.”

Shadow Souji started to hyperventilate. It was then that he replaced the one-word-question trance he was on with what Akira thought to be incoherent babbling. “I didn't want to- I believed in him- I shouldn't have- _help me-_ need to protect the others-”

Hearing this, Makoto rushed in, pushed Akira out of the way – though he didn’t seem to mind – and started try to calm Shadow Souji down. “Hey, hey,” She said to the shadow in a soft, motherly tone. “The others are all right. Right now, I need you to take a deep breath with me. Ready?” She then started to walk through some breathing exercises with the shadow.

“This shadow…” Morgana came up beside Akira, worry showing in his eyes. “I can only imagine how much despair his real self must be feeling. You made the right call in taking on that request.”

“He’s almost as messed up as I was,” Futaba solemnly said as she snuck up to Akira’s other side. “Before you guys stole my heart.” Akira looked down at her, seeing a look of empathy on her face, even if her goggles-shaped mask hid her eyes.

“Looks like Queen was able to calm down the shadow down,” Morgana said, pulling Akira’s attention back to where Shadow Souji stood. “Let’s try talking to him.”

Akira once again approached Shadow Souji, and asked, “Mind if you can tell us what’s going on?”

Shadow Souji hesitated still looking down at the ground. He then said, “I… I can’t. Not without putting them in danger.”

Akira sighed. “Okay, let’s try something else,” He pondered for a minute on what he wanted to say, but nothing came up; none that wouldn’t reveal who he was, or what that mysterious persona asked him to do.

“Hey, maybe we should just tell this guy why we’re here,” Ryuji suggested. “Since it doesn’t look like this guy’s going to tell us anything otherwise.”

“Yeah,” Akira agreed. Taking a deep breath, Akira started, “If you’ve been paying attention to the news for the past few months, then you’ve probably heard about the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Well, that’s us. Because you have cast yourself into the pit of despair, we have come to steal your heart!”

“Joker,” Ann spoke, deadpanned. “That was so not cool.”

“Don’t just kill the moment like that!” Akira looked to Ann, whining.

“I expected something better from you…” Ann half-heartedly retorted. “You sounded like Skull for a few seconds there.”

“Hey!” Ryuji yelled, taken aback.

“I have to agree with Panther here.” Morgana said.

“Yeah, that was lame.” Futaba chimed in.

“I, for one, thought it was eloquently put.” Yusuke interjected.

“I agree with Fox,” Noir added. “I thought it was the appropriate thing to say.”

“See, Fox and Noir get it.” Akira said proudly.

“You’re trying to stop me from protecting them,” Shadow Souji murmured, taking the phantom thieves’ attention off their playful banter and back onto him. “Aren’t you…?”

“We’re trying to do no such thing!” Makoto exclaimed. “We only want to help!”

Shadow Souji yelled, “I won’t let you hurt them!” He then lunged toward Makoto, who had no time to react. Just then, Yusuke rushed in front of Makoto and partially withdrew his katana. The sounds of metal clashing reverberated throughout the room, with Yusuke now struggling to push Shadow Souji away. Now that his face was in full view, Shadow Souji had the same yellow-coloured eyes other shadows have, and his face was wet with freshly shed tears.

“Thanks, Fox,” Makoto breathed right as the shadow stepped back. She then exclaimed, “This shadow’s stronger than any we’ve faced before. Be careful, everyone!”

“Skull! Fox! Mona!” Akira yelled to the three. “I’m going to need your help in this battle. Everyone else, be ready on standby!” Everyone nodded in affirmation.

“So, you’re the leader then,” Shadow Souji commented.

“You could say that,” Akira smirked. He then summoned his persona, Arsene, and used Eiga. Akira watched as the attack landed but did no damage to the shadow. Akira gasped in disbelief, “What?!”

“So, you have a Persona, then.” Shadow Souji stated, straightening himself. “If your friends also have them, then that means…” The shadow’s eyes widened as realization dawned upon him. “Then I… am a shadow…” The room fell into an unnatural silence for a few moments. Then, an agonizing scream coming from Souji’s shadow rang throughout, forcing the phantom thieves to cover their ears.

“What the?!” Futaba gasped. “What’s happening?!”

“Aren’t you supposed to tell us what’s happening?!” Ryuji shouted.

“Is he going psychotic?!” Futaba asked herself. “No, wait, he mentioned something about personas…”

“Oh yeah, forgot to mention,” Akira yelled out nonchalantly through the shadow’s screaming, “The shadow was once a persona user, apparently.”

“ _What?!_ ” The others yelled out in shock.

“You couldn’t have told us about this _sooner?!”_ Makoto scolded Akira through the shadow’s screams.

“You never asked!” Akira yelled back.

“Focus on the battle!” Futaba interrupted. “He’s about to attack!”

Sure enough, Shadow Souji stopped screaming, instead calling out, “Come, Izanagi!” The persona Shadow Souji summoned was the same one Akira saw in the Velvet room the night before. Though, Akira noticed that Izanagi had taken on a more shadowy form and was barely translucent. Within seconds, lightning rained down as Akira, Ryuji, Yusuke, and Morgana were hit with Mazionga that knocked Morgana down.

“Ha!” Ryuji yelled boastfully, shaking off the attack with ease. “Zio resistance, bitch!” As if in retaliation, Shadow Souji used his additional attack to use Cross Slash - a move none of the Phantom Thieves have seen - on Ryuji. “What the hell was that for?!” Ryuji yelled as he struggled to stay standing.

“Oh, Skull…” Morgana sighed disappointingly. He got up from the ground and, as if to rub salt in the wound, decided to use Garula on Shadow Souji. To everyone’s astonishment, it knocked the shadow to the ground. “So, this shadow is weak to wind, eh?” Morgana noted mischievously.

“Should we go for an all-out attack?” Yusuke inquired.

Akira replied “No, right now we need to prioritize. Mona, your task is to focus on hitting the enemy’s weakness, and then guarding right after.”

“Got it!” Morgana said, moving into a defensive position.

Akira continued “Skull! Fox! Don’t hold back!”

While Yusuke nodded, Ryuji whined in pain, “That’s great and all, but who will heal us?!”

Akira looked at Ryuji with a concerned glare, “…Did you forget I can switch out personas? I have a persona with Mediarama…”

“Oh, right!” Ryuji exclaimed once realization set in. “Sorry man, I’ll try to hang on a little longer!” And with that, Ryuji attacked Shadow Souji.

After Yusuke used the skill Tempest Slash, Akira was next to attack. Instead, he switched out Arsene with Kikuri-Hime and used Mediarama. Next was Shadow Souji, who attacked Ryuji yet again using the Cross Slash Skill. The rest of the battle played out with the Phantom Thieves using this strategy, no matter how long that took, until Souji’s shadow keeled over in defeat.

“So, I’ve been defeated…” The shadow breathed.

Akira walked towards Shadow Souji, “You realized that you were a shadow, and that we have personas,” Akira started. “You could’ve stopped fighting us at any time, so why didn’t you?”

“Maybe it’s what he wanted,” Futaba stepped in, speaking in a soft tone. “What he thought would help him in the end. Like how I wanted you all to steal my messed up heart.” Both she and Akira looked at Shadow Souji, who nodded at them.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Makoto spoke up, “Could you tell us the circumstances that led you to having a shadow?”

“Yeah, I can,” Shadow Souji replied. He got up on his feet and started to explain, “Five years ago, I was once known as the leader of a group of persona-users called the Investigation Team. We were investigating a string of murders in the small town of Inaba.” At the mention of the town’s name, Akira tensed up enough for Makoto, Futaba, Haru, and Morgana to notice. The shadow continued, “Just like in this bustling city, Inaba also had a gateway to the other world we called ‘The TV World’.”

“So, you’re saying that Inaba had its own version of the metaverse this whole time…?” Akira spoke without emotion.

The shadow nodded, continuing, “The TV world is a foggy place; the fog from that world had negative effects on the human body, but those who had a special pair of glasses not only were spared from the effects of the fog, but could also see clearly through it. But I digress,” Shadow Souji took a deep breath, “All the members had to face their shadows – a manifestation of a part of themselves they didn’t want to accept. However, I was the only one that didn’t have a shadow.”

“Why didn’t you?” Futaba wondered.

Shadow Souji answered, “I’m not sure, to be honest.” He took a deep breath and continued once more, “After the second victim, I and another persona-user decided it take it upon ourselves to save those who were thrown into the TV World, with the victims becoming a part of the Investigation Team. This continued until my cousin had become a victim herself. She… she…”

Shadow Souji was on the verge of tears before Makoto rushed in and calmed him. After a little while, the shadow spoke up, “So much happened during that time, it’s almost scary to think how, if any one of us slipped up during then, we wouldn’t have been able to find the true killer.”

“But you didn’t,” Akira said through gritted teeth. “Did you?”

“If there’s one thing I regret,” Shadow Souji’s voice was barely above a whisper, “It’s protecting the true killer, and destroying the evidence that would have incriminated him.”

“You… _what?!_ ” Akira was seething with rage. “You _knew_ who the real killer was, and decided to _protect him?_ What next, you telling me the fog that’s been covering Inaba for _five years_ is the same fog from this TV World?!”

When the shadow didn’t say anything, Akira was ready to snap. _No._ He thought to himself. _This isn’t the time to lose your cool._ Taking deep breaths to calm himself, Akira asked, “Why? Why try to protect the killer?”

Souji’s shadow hesitated to answer, “…I wanted to believe in him. Wanted to believe… that he wasn’t the killer. And look where that foolish belief led me.” He started to chuckle, turning into a hiccup, followed by the stifling of a fresh wave of tears streaming down the shadow’s face. “Because of my stupid decision, I’m being blackmailed to do exactly what he wants.”

Akira’s tone softened, “…And if you don’t?”

“Th-then the… the other Investigation team members… they’ll, _they’ll…_ ” Shadow Souji tried to hiccup the words out, before giving up. It took a while for the shadow to calm down. “Because of me, their lives are in the palms of the killer’s hands, and they don’t even know it.” Another moment of silence passed, but when it ended, the shadow pleaded, “I know I don’t have any right to say this, but if you are able to, _please_ fix this disgraced persona-user’s mess.”

If only a little, Akira sympathized with the shadow, only because he would try to do anything in his power to keep his own friends safe. He looked to his friends, mostly keeping quiet throughout the conversation, and all nodded in approval of whatever choice he made. Turning his head back to face Souji’s shadow, Akira sighed, “We’ll take care of it. After all, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts aim to free those who fall victim to corrupt adults – minus Oracle, of course.”

“Thank you.” Shadow Souji reached his hand out, palm facing upwards, and a card appeared, hovering slightly above his palm. “I want you to have Izanagi,” He said, “It’s for the best.” The card then hovered over towards Akira, stopping a few inches in front of his face.

“Are you sure this is all right?” Akira asked, a little confused.

“To me,” the Shadow explained, “Izanagi is the embodiment of truth. I ran from the truth of the situation five years ago, and now I’ve been paying the price ever since. It’s the least I can do for my persona, so please accept it.”

“…Alright.” Akira reluctantly agreed. Just then, the card broke into pieces, which were then sucked into Akira’s mask.

“It’s time for me to go, now.” Shadow Souji breathed.

“Wait!” Akira yelled at the now disappearing shadow, “We need the killer’s name!”

“The Killer’s name is…Tohru Adachi.” And with that, Shadow Souji disappeared, leaving behind seven pairs of glasses, each with their own colour.

“His treasure was…glasses?” Ann wondered aloud while Akira went to take the glasses that were floating in the air. “And there’s seven of them too…”

“More importantly,” Makoto looked at Akira, worried, “Are you alright, Joker?”

“You looked like you were about to lose it…” Haru added, equally concerned.

Akira’s hesitation to say anything was enough to worry his friends. Though, he supposed he should give them a reason why, “I’m… originally from Inaba,” The shocked reactions his friends gave him in return was understandable; this was the first time he was talking about his hometown to any of them. “I don’t really like to talk about it, for two reasons. You can probably guess the first. The second is because I don’t want to get asked about the fog that’s covered the town for 5 years.”

“So, we takin’ on this request, Joker?” Ryuji asked, fired up. “I mean, we’d get to show up a group of persona-users who came before us!”

Ann chucked, “I’d be lying to myself if I also said I didn’t want to accept the request.”

The others also expressed their opinions of wanting to steal this accomplishment from the members of the Investigation team; even Akira admitted to himself that he wanted to do it too. “Alright guys,” Akira announced, clearing his throat. “We’re taking on this mission! However, I’m going to need to take the rest of the time we have today to plan, so, let’s get out of here before we encounter the Reaper.” Everyone shuddered at the mention of the reaper, but nevertheless, they all started to head out of Mementos. “Oracle,” Akira called.

Futaba looked up at Akira, “Hm? What is it?”

“I’m going to need your help once we’re back in Yongen. Something that only you can do.”

Futaba grinned mischievously, “Oh, are we going to hack someone?”

“Something like that,” Akira replied. During the time it took the Phantom Thieves to get out of Mementos, Akira, who was sitting in a passenger seat, was lost in thought.


	4. The Phone Call

If Souji was only given one word to describe his day, “horrible” would be a sad understatement. Starting out as any other normal day, he got up, went to work, and ended up leaving work early to gather intel on a middle-aged man named Toranosuke Yoshida; a disgraced politician running in the upcoming general elections, from what Souji had gathered. Why Adachi wanted Souji to target this man, he didn’t want to know.

Souji’s intel-gathering was cut short when anguish hit him like a sack of bricks. Not wanting to be seen, he moved into an alley, trying and failing to calm himself down. _Why is this happening now?_ Souji thought. _Why, of all times?! What could have triggered it this time? I’ve been so focused on what Adachi wants me to do now, so could that be it? No, it can’t be. But then, why?_ Souji headed back home before he went into a full-on breakdown.

Once he closed the door to his apartment, he leaned against it, slid down, and curled up into a ball. He didn’t know how long he stayed there, but it did give him time to think. He had wondered if he himself had a shadow, just like his friends in Inaba had. It would make sense, since he didn’t wanna face the person he had become within the past four years. At that point, Souji couldn’t stop himself from breaking down. What made it worse a while later was when he had a feeling a part of him had disappeared.

It wasn’t until a couple hours later when a phone call pulled Souji out his ball of despair. He didn’t answer the phone right away, instead getting up off the floor and stretching, feeling like shit. Moving to the kitchen, Souji looked at the caller while walking away from the door, saw it belonged to a private number, and decided to let the phone ring. Silence followed once the phone stopped ringing, only to ring once again a few seconds later. Again, Souji found himself seeing the caller listed as private.

“Whoever this person is,” Souji thought aloud, his voice a little hoarse, “They’re just going to keep calling until I answer, huh?” Sighing, he pressed the call button and spoke into the receiver, “What is it?”

“ _Finally,_ you answer your phone!” A distorted, yet seemingly annoyed voice rang into Souji’s ear, “Do you know how many times we tried calling you?”

An equally distorted, yet deeper voice could also be heard from the other end, “Could you not do that? We’re not calling him to chastise him!”

“It’s his fault for not picking up after the 10th time…” The first countered.

The second voice sighed angrily from into what Souji thought to be the receiver, “Listen, we don’t have time for this.”

Souji was both confused and done with the phone call. “State your names and your reason for calling before I hang up.” He demanded.

The two on the other line stopped bickering with each other. Then the second started to speak in a serious tone, “My name is Joker.”

“And I am Alibaba,” The first voice added.

“We are contacting you because we have something important to talk to you about,” Joker announced. “It’s about Adachi.”

A cold chill ran up Souji’s spine as his face paled. Out of fear, he ended the call and let his phone slip out of his hand. He could even feel himself getting light-headed and losing balance. He placed one hand on the kitchen counter and another on his head, staying like that for a couple minutes until his phone started to ring.

Though, the ringtone was different than the one Souji had originally set. Hellish was the only word Souji could think of to describe the new ringtone. He picked up the phone and saw two things: the first being that the caller was listed as private, leading Souji to think it was the same people who had called him earlier. The second thing he noticed was that the font on his phone had been changed from whatever it was originally to comic sans. Once again, he sighed and answered the phone, this time not greeting the caller.

“Listen here, you,” Alibaba said, sounding pissed. “I wanted to be civil about this, but you’ve forced me to play bad cop!”

“When are you ever civil?” Joker asked, sass ever present in his distorted tone of voice.

“Uh, excuse me?” Alibaba retorted, “I’m _always_ civil!”

“Like that one-time last week when you hacked my phone because I finished off the last bit of curry.”

“You know how much I like his curry!”

“If you’re just going to argue with each other,” Souji cut in, “Then I’m going to hang up.”

“We need to talk,” Joker’s tone of voice told Souji that whatever he had to say, it was serious. “We know about what you did in Inaba.”

Again, Souji’s face paled as another cold chill ran up his spine. This time, however, he didn’t hang up the phone, nor did he drop it. Swallowing, he asked, “…Who told you?”

“You did,” Joker answered calmly, “Well, it would be more accurate that the ‘other you’ told us.”

“‘Other me’?” Then, just as he thought, he has a shadow. And from what he could guess, it also meant that Joker was a persona-user. But why hide that fact? Though, something more important had crossed his mind, “Is there any way we can talk face-to-face?”

“No.” Both Joker and Alibaba answered Souji’s question quickly.

“I think we have to,” Souji started to panic. “You never know who could be listening in, and I fear that someone might be.”

“Oh, _please,_ ” Alibaba said, drawing out the last word, “The only person who has the capabilities of hacking this phone call would be me.”

“How do I know that what you say is true…?” Souji asked warily.

“Because I am the original Medjed.” Alibaba answered nonchalantly. Souji had heard of that hacker organization; the ‘hackers of justice’ as some would call them. “So many people started to claim themselves as Medjed that instead of wasting my time taking the fakes down, I just became Alibaba.”

“Anyways,” Joker said, steering the conversation back, “We need information.”

“About Adachi?” Souji guessed.

“The ‘other you’ didn’t really tell us much about him, other than his name. I take it that he still lives in Inaba?”

Souji became a little confused, “…How do you know he lives in Inaba?”

“Classified.” Joker answered the question quickly, “Now, answer my question. This time, not with another question.”

It took a moment for Souji to respond, “Adachi should still be living in Inaba, yes.”

“Ok then,” Joker said, “Then, do you know how he views Inaba?”

“…No?” Souji hesitantly answered, still confused, “I don’t understand what you’re asking.”

“You don’t know?” Joker asked, a little annoyed. He sighed into the receiver, changing the subject “Has Adachi given you any orders as of late?”

Again, Souji could fell a chill running down his spine, “…How do you know about-”

“Just answer the question!” Alibaba demanded.

“…He told me to ‘take care’ of a politician. For what reason, I don’t ever want to know.”

“Who’s this politician?” Joker asked.

“Some disgraced politician name Toranosuke Yoshida.”

“Isn’t he your speech dad?” Alibaba asked, presumably to Joker.

The call fell into silence. “Ok here’s what you are going to do,” Joker said a few minutes later, seriousness emanating from the other end. “First, you are going to go about your life as normal as you can before you got this call. Second, whatever you do, do _not_ harm Yoshida.”

Souji cut in, “Adachi will get suspicious if I take too long…”

“Lie about why it’s taking so long if you have to.” Joker retorted.

“What are you planning?” Souji asked, concerned.

“We’re going to clean up your mess,” Joker responded with determination. “Another thing: do not return to Inaba until we tell you to. This way we’ll have an easier time cleaning up your mess.”

“And don’t think of ignoring us then either!” Alibaba added, “You’re going whether you like it or not!”

“Ok, ok!” Souji replied, a little sheepish, “I got it!” He cleared his throat, “Is there anything else?”

“Just make sure you follow our orders,” Joker replied in a softer tone, “Other than that there’s not much I can think of. If I’ve missed anything, I’ll have Alibaba notify you.”

Souji absentmindedly thought aloud, “I can’t tell whether you two are better than Adachi, or worse.”

“Hey,” Alibaba commented, sounding a little offended, “at least we’re not blackmailing you to keep quiet! Or threatening to harm your friends!”

“We’re good-natured people, I’ll have you know!” Joker added, also sounding a little offended. “Anyways, If you understand, then we’ll be hanging up.” The line cut out right after Joker finished his sentence.

Souji sighed, releasing all the tension from his body. _Even though I have no idea how reliable these persona-users are,_ he thought to himself, _looks like I’ve got to trust them with this._ Compared to everything that happened today, the rest of Souji’s evening passed by uneventfully; something he was glad about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the link to Souji's new ringtone:
> 
> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b8iiZxVwIa8


End file.
